London
Through bringing together a new interdisciplinary field of artists, writers, architects, musicians, human geographers and philosophers Walking Cities: London considers how a city walk informs and triggers new processes of making, thinking, researching and communicating. In particular, the book examines how the city contains narratives, knowledge and contested materialities that are best accessed through the act of walking. Ultimately, Walking Cities: London seeks to understand the wider significance of changing geographies to generate critical questions and creative perspectives for navigating the social and political impact of rapid urban change.
The book emerged four years after the birth of the RCA Research Group The Walkative Society. In 2013, Jaspar Joseph-Lester and Simon King co-founded the project. Through participant and guest-led walks, artists, architectural critics, film makers, critical spatial theorists and writers respond to textual, visual and verbal prompts (but also have free reign to respond more personally).
Walking Cities: London is a 398pp lithographed paperback commissioning and collating this research.
The book was co-designed between Samuel Jones, Design Print Bind and me. The first edition was published by Camberwell Press. The second edition has been published by Routledge, and it’s design was tweaked by Samuel Jones.
My undulating line illustrations were interpreted by Max Köhler in his design and development of The Walkative Project website. Max’s dynamic undulating lines, like my own static illustrations, each respond to the feature of a particular entry. This allows each archived walk to have something of a unique identity — which you can see live on the site, here.
The first edition was launched at Showroom Gallery amongst a gorgeous exhibition by Laura Oldfield Ford, who features in the book.
The first edition is now sold out, but you can buy the second edition over on the Routledge site.
